Songs that Sound Like Other Songs

Post navigation

Avril Lavigne vs. The Rubinoos

Here’s another Lukasz Gottwald (aka Dr. Luke) produced track for the site. This time for the 2007 Avril Lavigne song “Girlfriend”. The chorus similarity did not go unnoticed by seventies power pop band The Rubinoos whose 1979 single “I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend” shares a striking resemblance. In 2007 Rubinoos frontman Tommy Dunbar and co-writer James Gangwer filed suit in U.S. District Court in Northern California against Lavigne, Dr. Luke, RCA Records and Apple Inc.

“We are not so naive as to chalk it up to some sort of cosmic coincidence,” Dunbar said in a statement on Thursday. “The lyric, the meter, the rhythm … they’re identical.”

Pachelbel’s Canon is commonly referenced on this site. Then add a similar guitar riff, a specific synthesizer sound and a nearly identical vocal melody and then we have something else. I try not to post songs that simply follow this standard progression.